One Step' plus bonus short 'Fishsticks'
by Brianna Aisling
Summary: 'One Step:' Akane stands on the steps of Furinkan, thinking over her high school career. 'Fishsticks:' A short AU scene.
1. One Step

I know it's late, but when I wrote it I didn't like it and now I do.

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Future

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            Akane stood at the door to Furinkan High School and gazed out across what was left of the student body.  She knew that this was her last time ever on this campus as a student.  She would never see these halls again as she did now.  They would never hold the same meaning.  Now they were regarded with slight disdain and the knowledge that beyond them lay teachers and math tests and home economics.  Soon, they'd be regarded as something like a memory book.  She would see them and remember how Ranma would run along the top of the fence while she ran beside him on the sidewalk.  She'd remember how she and her friends had laughed at Kuno the day in their first year when he'd somehow managed to tangle himself in a garden hose and then threatened to kill the 'monstrosity of an Anaconda.'  She'd remember how she'd met her friends, Sayuri her partner in her biology class, Yuka crying in a corner because some boy had broken her heart.  She'd remember the hurt and the uncertainty that Ranma had brought to her life, but she'd also remember the laughter and the warm feeling that had filled her the first time he'd told her she was cute.

            Biting her lip, Akane stepped forward.  The tips of her shoes rested over the edge of the first step.  'Go down these stairs,' she told herself, 'and you've left behind the most dramatic time in your life.  Go down these stairs and you've only got yourself.  Go down these stairs and you're an adult.'  Her hands trembled with excitement and fear.  One step and she was one step into her future.  One step and she was stepping away from her family and into her own life.  Her own life.  A chill ran down her spine.  She'd wanted her own life for so long that she found it odd that now that she was just moments away from it she would hesitate to leave what she had wanted to get away from.  Akane continued to stare down at the toes of her white tennies.

~~~

            Ranma stepped up next to Akane and mimicked her pose, trying to see what was so interesting.  Nothing but shoes.  He cocked his head to look at her.  He almost thought that she was unaware of him.

            "This is the last time, Ranma."  Her voice was so soft he almost missed it.

            "What?"

            "This is the last time.  I will never be a high school student again.  I'm an adult now."  

            Ranma looked at her, his head still tilted to the side.

            "Why?"

            Akane looked up at him startled.

            "Why what?"

            "Why are you an adult now?  You can be a child still.  Well, somewhat anyway."

            "I suppose, but there will still be bills and debts and responsibilities and finding a house."

            "I thought that w-you would get the dojo."

            Akane turned to look at him.

            "I guess I am.  Yeah, Kasumi will probably move in with her husband and I've always known that Nabiki was going to move out."  Sudden panic gripped her.  "Oh no,  that means that I'll have to clean the house and take care of the dojo.  Ranma, I don't know anything about running a business!" she wailed.  Ranma chuckled and jumped down the stairs.

            "Ah, don't worry about it, Akane.  You've got plenty of people to help you."  He reached up and took her hand, pulling her down the stairs.  He didn't release her hand but pulled it up so that her knuckles were near his lips.

            "And you've always got me," he whispered, kissing her knuckles.  Her eyes shone with warmth. 

            "I think that if you're in my life, Ranma, I won't ever have to worry."  She pushed his hand down with her own, kissed him on the lips, and took off.  She paused at the gate and turned to see Ranma staring after her, a hand on his lips, his eyes wide.  She beckoned to him.  He dropped his hand and smiled.  Shoving his hands in his pockets he sauntered toward Akane, his wife-to-be and his future, with a light heart.

~~~~~

Dedicated to the Class of 2002.

~~~~~


	2. Fishsticks

Fishsticks

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            Two cats sat side by side.  The larger one, the tom, had his head turned away.  He was sleek and dark with ice blue eyes.  His tail twitched nervously, giving his emotional state away.  The other, the female, was quite and still.  She looked at the ground.  She was slender and dark with firey red highlights in the shine of her coat.

            The tom cleared his throat.  The female looked at him.  If one looked closely, one could see a ghost of a smile curl her lips upwards.

            "Um...Akane?"

            "Yes, Ranma?"

            "I-I wanted to say....  I mean, I--"  The tom's tail swished around wildly.  The female smiled.  She leaned up against him and wrapped her tail around his, forcing it to calm.

            "It's okay, Ranma.  I understand."

            Ranma's only reply was to purr.

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Just a cute scene of a type of AU that no one else has written.  Oh, I gave Akane red highlights because of her name--it had nothing to do with Ranma's cursed body.


End file.
